St Paul’s Milngavie St Paul’s Milngavie St Paul’s Milngavie St Paul’s Milngavie Life Magazine Life Magazine Life Magazine Life Magazine

April 2012April 2012April 2012April 2012

Dear Friends, I had never ever read anything by Ben Okri until recently when this prize-winning novelist and poet wrote an article for a Sunday supplement. He mentioned his childhood in Nigeria in a time of civil war. Young Ben saw things that even now he finds difficult to talk about. Dead bodies in rivers. People shot in the streets. He writes: ‘I’ve blanked out a lot of it. But writing comes partly out of being wounded by life. Something has had to have bruised and shaken you a little bit; otherwise, why do we ask questions? It’s very rare that people who have lived perfect lives become artists because the need to create art is connected to a need to heal something that is imperfect.’ There’s a lot to think about there but I am struck by his idea that suffering can be creative. Certainly, you don’t have to go too far into the artistic world to find this borne out. The painting of Van Gogh and the music of Tchaikovsky were the products of tortured psyches - and it has often been said that Bob Dylan is at his best when he is going through a bad time. Let’s be clear. Suffering is never to be commended. No one wants it. Of course there are people, perhaps the majority, who look at their suffering and find no answer to the question why and, moreover, see no good in it. But the testimony of people like Ben Okri shows there is this other side to the darkness. And then there is the Cross. On the face of it a disgusting spectacle but it stands at the centre of our faith as an assurance that there is forgiveness with our God and the promise of a life beyond this life. Jesus sacrifice was motivated by a need to heal something that was imperfect in us. This tells me that there are no no-go areas for our God, not even our experi-ences of pain, abandonment and anguish. Nothing prevents him working out His purpose in our lives; in fact he works through our suffering to make us the people he wants us to be. Jesus once said something startling: ‘I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.’ (John 15: 1-2)

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I confess that I haven’t done much pruning in the garden but doesn’t it involve cutting, breaking and sap bleeding from branches? But it is all necessary for the plant or tree to grow towards its full fruitfulness. Jesus says the same process is necessary for spiritual fruit to grow in our lives. This is one of the challenges of Easter. To live as Jesus lived in the firm convic-tion that while the Father’s will is sometimes hard, it is always good.

Yours in Christ, Fergus C Buchanan

Cuban Coffee I would like to thank you all for the tremendous support I received at my Cuba Coffee Morning on Saturday 3rd March 2012. At the Sunday morning service, Mr Buchanan informed the congregation that it realised £705.00, but after the Sunday service more donations were given to my Mum and Dad and the figure rose to an amazing £1049.00. This is a massive response and a great encouragement to me as I make my ar-rangements to go to Cuba in July 2012. It would be good if you could remember to pray for me and the other students from Edinburgh University in the coming weeks – listed below are some of our prayer points Prayer points -

• Administration and preparation for the team as we meet to plan, pray and have fellowship together

• Purchase of flights and application for visas (this can be quite difficult in some cases)

• Personal walk with God for team members as we live and study in Edinburgh

• Ideas and enthusiasm as we plan dramas and start to think about and study different issues that the Cuban church and people strug-gle with so that we can help rein-force sound Christian doctrine and engage the community ap-propriately.

Thanks again Andrew Muirhead

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World Mission Prayer Diary—April Colin Johnson is the Associate Minis-ter at Tiberias.

Recently a service was held in the church to mark AIDS Awareness Sun-day. Baker Awawdy , the Director of the Galilee Society spoke about their work with HIV especially within the Pal-estine community in Galilee. HIV af-fects people in that area and they have to face difficulties from stigma and taboo.

Let us remember the people who suf-fer from AIDS and all its consequences in Palestine and also in Africa in our prayers.

We also would remember Colin John-son as he ministers to the people in Tiberias.

Book Aid

There has been an amazing response to the request for Christian books and Bibles which folk no longer require. Many thanks to all those who have con-tributed so generously. These books will be sent to countries such as Africa, where folk there have little access to Christian literature. They will be much appreciated. If you still have books you wish to do-nate, please can contact Ken Hatcher tel 01698 266669 as he collects them from Challenge house, Canal Street. Thank you. ` Sheila Harrison

THE FOLLOWING 25 STATEMENTS ABOUT THE BIBLE WERE WRIT-

TEN BY CHILDREN. THEY HAVE NOT BEEN RETOUCHED OR CORRECTED

• ONE OF THE OPPOSSUMS WAS ST. MATTHEW WHO WAS ALSO

A TAXIMAN

• ST. PAUL CAVORTED TO CHRISTIANITY, HE PREACHED HOLY ACRI-

MONY, WHICH IS ANOTHER NAME FOR MARRIAGE

• CHRISTIANS HAVE ONLY ONE SPOUSE. THIS IS

CALLED MONOTONY

• JESUS ENUNCIATED THE GOLDEN RULE, WHICH SAYS TO DO

UNTO OTHERS BEFORE THEY DO ONE TO YOU. HE ALSO EX-

PLAINED A MAN DOTH NOT LIVE BY SWEAT ALONE

• SOLOMON, ONE OF DAVID’S SONS, HAD 300 WIVES AND 700 POR-

CUPINES

Thanks to Anne Goodlet for these

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Japan Jottings

Dear Friends, Last month we had the joy of celebrating the baptism of Wataru, a 25 year old young man who first started coming to our church a couple of years ago. He came just now and again at that time but gradually changed and reached the point over a year ago when he wanted to meet each week with David and our colleague JP to study the Bible more. It was great to be with him on this journey to the point when he was able to believe in Jesus. God has worked in his life and is continuing to do so. It was a real privilege to listen to his testimony as he shared that during the service when we he had his baptism. As he spoke he mentioned a number of turning points in his life over the past two years. God so often seems to bring people to faith through many links in a chain, both people and events that happen to them. The next day David had a quite different event to attend – the local primary school graduation. As PTA Chair for the year, it was David’s responsibility to give a congratulatory speech during the ceremony. It was quite a task but such an honour to be part of that occasion. David kept his speech very simple and based it on a Christian book by Max Lucado (also translated into Japanese) called You are Special. Many times we do not know what impact our words and actions might have, whether now or years later. But we leave God to work out his purposes in his time. This being April, it is half-term at Hebron and also the start of the new school year here. It is Lorna’s turn this time to visit our older boys and this will be Daniel’s last half-term as he finishes at Hebron in June. For Calum it is also the beginning of an end as he goes into the final grade at Japanese school before moving to Hebron later this year. Lots of changes lie ahead for us over these coming months.

Many thanks for all your support for us in so many ways.

With our love

David, Lorna, Daniel, Matthew, Calum and Alistair

St Paul’s website We haven’t room for a full feature on the new website this month but please have a look at www.stpaulsmilngavie.org.uk to see the results of a lot of hard work on behalf of the team. Thanks to Stephen Thoms, Thomas James, Chris Scott and Peter MacIver. Training will be taking place over the next few weeks for the representatives of the organisations who will be updating their own pages from now on. Ed

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The Guild On Monday 27

th February Mr Lachie MacLeod MBE spoke to the

Guild about Something for Romania. He has delivered lorry loads of medical supplies, tools and Christian literature to help relieve suf-fering among the people of Romania. This charity SFR is now rais-ing money to support a Romanian charity which provides free homecare and palliative care for serious and terminally ill patients. The first Monday in March the Guild welcomed pupils from the Douglas Acad-emy Music School under the leadership of Derek Norval. We had a wonderful evening of music with them being entertained by classical pieces of music and foot-tapping Scottish music on the Accordion. The following week had us laughing in our seats when our guests were twin brothers John and Peter Douglas from Dumbarton. They told us of their life from birth in Hyndland, their move down south during the war years, then back to Glasgow, both having very bad eyesight and were told that their sight would get no better, their Saturday morning visits to the cinema at Anniesland and then they stopped when they reached eighteen years of age and if we want to hear the rest we have to invite them back next session! (They are already on the new syllabus!!). So watch this space as they say! The following week we heard from Mrs. Kathleen MacPherson whose talk was entitled – Hollywood A Presbyterian Perspective. Kathleen was a daughter of the Manse and her father was minister in Glasgow, Saltcoats and Aberdeen and she has always had a love for all the Hollywood actors. She has visited “Tinseltown” as she called it a few times and entertained us greatly with her sto-ries.

As Life goes to print we only have one meeting left this ses-sion and that’s our AGM and Home Night. We have had a wonderful ses-sion in the Guild and our thanks must go to our Presi-dent, Evelyn Williams and her Committee for giving us a su-per syllabus since October. Jean Scott

Flower donations— April

March flower donations:- Mrs. M. Hamilton, Mrs. M. Hossack, Mrs. H. Lindsay, Mrs. C. MacKay, Mrs. I. More, Mrs. M. Rae.

Please put donations in Flower Rota pigeon hole at the back of the church or send to Mrs. W. Douglas, 34 Braeside Ave, Milngavie G62 6LJ Phone 956 2630

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Book Club

The problem with this month’s book, The History of the World in 10½ Chapters by Julian Barnes, is where to begin! We had one of the most animated discussions for a long time regarding the content of this book.

It is fair to say that the majority of those present did not enjoy all of the short sto-ries, although some would read it again. The first story is a quirky look at the story of Noah and a couple of people did consider it to be blasphemous. Al-though the book is well written, as you would expect from a Booker Prize winner, it is very hard to define.

Each chapter or story could be read separately as each is written with a different narrator and different style. It could also be read as a novel as there is a connec-tion between each of the stories, which can sometimes be hard to find. Some parts were dull and uninteresting and others were very funny, but just like any other history, there are periods and events that interest you more than others. The best advice we can give is to read it for yourself – you will either love it or hate it!

Our next meeting is on Tuesday 24 April 2012 when we will be looking at our next book - 20 Thousand Streets under the Sky by Patrick Hamilton. Joyce Clark

The Anchor Boys Spring into Action The Anchor Boys found sponsors for themselves for their adven-ture afternoon "Spring into Action" in Lennox Park where they looked for all the signs of Spring, played games, had a good walk and lots of fun. At the same time, there was an Afternoon Tea and a Silent Auction in St Paul's Halls. Altogether, an amazing £1328 was raised for the Boys' Brigade World Mission Fund. Our target this year was a thousand pounds to buy a brick-making machine for the Boys' Brigade in Zambia. There will be enough left over to pay for materials to get them started. A great big THANK YOU to everyone who helped the Boys achieve well over their target.

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Brigade Blethers

On Friday 16 March thirty girls and leaders headed for Auchengil-lan for our annual Company weekend. We arrived in pouring rain and in spite of Andy Wilson the camp warden assuring me that he had ordered good weather for the Saturday I really did think he was being over optimistic. However by 7.00am the next morning the sun was shining and the whole campsite looked glorious. No matter where you go at Auchengillan the view is dominated by Dumgoyne and my feet were itching to climb to the top. The girls, meantime, were itching to make a start on the camp activities. They had a go at pedal karts; air rifles; crate climbing, team building, grass sledging, archery, water walkers, and the Equal-iser with one or two other items thrown in. The reason we could afford all these activities without breaking the bank was because of a generous grant from the Allander Charities Trust and we are very grateful to them. Gill Wallis and Louise Wilson came up to prepare our meals which meant that the leaders could concentrate on attending to the girls. Talking of meals I've been asked to make sure that Barbara Sinclair gets a mention for providing a great spaghetti bolognese. We had a party on the Saturday evening and now that I have reached my dotage it was great to sit back and let the younger leaders run the whole thing. The girls all really enjoyed it but after all the running around they had done during the day I don’t know where they got the energy! I think everyone had a good sleep that night. The sun stayed with us on the Sunday and Alex McEwan came up to take our short morning service. He came armed with maltesers for everyone and in-formed the girls that maltesers were produced for the first time the same year that I was born. Thanks Alex, every second advert on TV tells us that maltesers are 75 years old. I had that big birthday on the Saturday and I felt as if the whole weekend was just one great big birthday party. There was a huge cake, flowers, a massive box of chocolates and loads of love and prayers. Thank you parents for the privilege of looking after your brilliant daughters and thanks to Carol, Gayle, Janet, Katy, Sarah and Vivienne for making it all happen. Now it is back to earth with a bang because it is not long till the Display and we still have quite a bit of work to do before the items are ready for a public appear-ance. But we'll get there! See you next month Anne Goodlet.

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Church of Scotland Ministries and Mission Contributions 2012 Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Thank you for supporting the worship, mission and service of the church through the money you give in your offering. It is important that you know what happens to this money. This letter tells you how your congregations Ministries and Mis-sion contribution is used to enable to work of the Church. Congregation: Milngavie: St Paul’s Contribution £119,326 Ministries (86%) £102,620 This provides over 1,000 ministers and other parish workers in communities throughout Scotland and the Presbytery of England and supports the costs of recruitment and training. The 2012 cost of a parish minister at the top of the sti-pend scale is £39,895 (stipend plus employer’s national insurance and pension contributions) Mission (14%) £16,706 This supports the church’s work in resourcing congregations for Christian educa-tion and outreach, in caring for the most vulnerable in society in partnership with churches in some of the poorest parts of the world and in providing a Christian perspective on the issues of today. It also provides financial. Legal, safeguard-ing and other services for congregations and committees and supports the cost of the General Assembly and the Moderator. Please note that M&M contributions only provide part of the total funding re-quired for the work of the church listed above. A fuller picture is given in the leaf-let “Ministries and Mission 2012” which is available free to all congregations. I hope this helps you to understand the M&M contributions and shows you are enabling the sharing of the gospel through the money your congregation sends through the Church Offices to all parts of Scotland and beyond. Yours sincerely, Gordon D Jamieson, Head of Stewardship.

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At the end of last year the Church made donations to several charities from the surplus in the General Fund. I have received acknowledgements from all of them and would like to share with you the positive feedback that all of the chari-ties show in their letters and the encouragement they received from our support.

Chris Scott - Treasurer

Scottish Bible Society Thank you for your recent donation of £650 to help support the work of the So-ciety. This gift will have a real impact in the lives of people around the world.

Some examples of where our supporter’s generosity has been put to work.

In Croatia translation work is ongoing on a new modern Croatian Bible, the first common language Bible available in Croatian and the first from original Bibli-cal texts which will make the Bible more accessible to a far greater number of people both in Croatia and across the world.

In Russia the distribution of Scriptures continues in particular in Siberia where over 20 million people, many of whom endure severe climates, are scattered across this huge territory. Getting scrip-tures to these people requires consider-able subsidy and your gifts have helped to meet this cost.

In Iraq, a holistic distribution program is supporting families who received parcels containing a Bible, a children’s Bible, blankets, pillows and essential food items. Many have been introduced to the Bible message for the first time with the help of local churches and congrega-tions.

Catherine Johnstone Volunteer Co-ordinator

From the Barnabas Fund following our Watchnight Service. Thank you for your cheque of £916.42 representing the amount raised at your Christmas Eve Services as a gift to the Barnabas Fund. We greatly appreciate this most generous gift to help Christians who are suffering for their faith. We are so glad that you share our concern for these needy brothers and sisters. Gifts made through Barnabas Fund make a real difference to people who often have nobody else to help them. Please pray for Christians in Northern Nigeria. This small and vulnerable minority have been increasingly tar-geted by violence in recent years. On Christmas Day the militant Islamist organisation Boko Haram targeted six churches and left 40 people dead and many more injured. On New Year’s Day they issued a threat, giving Chris-tians just three days to leave the North. Pray for the protection of our brothers and sisters and that anti-Christian violence will not descend into full scale religious cleansing. Thank you for your support and prayers. Rosemary Sookhdeo, Director

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Christian Aid Week This year Christian Aid Week is from 13

th to 19

th May and

as usual we are looking for collectors. Look out for the sign-up sheet which will be at the back of the church. The committee are also looking for new mem-bers to join as we have lost a few in recent years. This is not a huge commitment and if you are interested please contact Gordon Campbell 563 0377.

Life and Work Contents—April 2012 A Transforming Experience The Rev Denis Duncan offers an Easter reflection. The Real Cost of Easter Eggs Thomas Baldwin looks at the ethical implications of choco-late Easter eggs. Philanthropy and Public Service Jackie Macadam meets Lord Selkirk, Lord High Commis-sioner to the 2012 General Assembly. A Welcome Return Ron Ferguson returns to the pages of Life and Work

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KIMO Update This is being written before our Coffee Morning when we plan to show recent photos and to give news of the boys and the Home at Kimo, but we thought it would be good to give some informa-tion here, especially for people who cannot join us at the Coffee Morning.

The home was officially opened just over a year ago after the completion of the first dormitory block. Unfortunately there were long, frustrating delays in the official process because the Peru-vian government decided to introduce several regulations regarding staffing and care procedures. These are all very laudable but were already in place, on the whole, in the homes run by Scripture Union where the authori-ties agreed that the standard of care of the boys was very high.

Eventually the first boys arrived last summer and the number has now grown to eighteen; their ages range from only six to seventeen. I was shocked to discover that the problem of street boys is not limited just to the big-ger cities but is an issue all over the country because mothers simply can-not afford to feed their families. Some-times their new partner refuses to support children who are not his, or the mother is on her own with a tiny income. As a result she either asks a friend to take her oldest son and 'lose' him, or she sometimes has to do that herself. The theory is that boys will be able to live on their wits and manage to survive by stealing, but in most cases they have to resort to prostitution to be able to afford a plate of food. In many cases they sniff glue to help forget their misery and often die of pneumonia be-fore they reach their eighteenth birth-day; Peru is normally warm or hot but

can be very cold at night, especially if you are living in a sewer or a graveyard with no protection.

The great news for the boys now at Kimo is that they are being loved and cared for by Henry and Eva, a Christian couple, with other support staff. They go to a state school in La Merced, a few miles down river, where they inte-grate with other children and additional help is provided by another member of staff and some volunteers who come to the home. They have a busy schedule which includes Bible teaching and chores, but also plenty of time to play and enjoy the childhood which was de-nied them in the past.

The second dormitory block has now been completed and when I go on an-other work party in September I hope that the home will be nearly at capacity, with forty boys. It will be thrilling to see the realisation of our hopes and dreams, the fruits of much hard work and generous giving by so many mem-bers of the congregation and the an-swers to much prayer among our mem-bers. Please continue to pray for these boys who have suffered so much, that they will be able to forget the past and look forward with confidence to a future where they can live fulfilled lives and play a useful part in society. It is our prayer that they will follow Jesus and will trust in a heavenly Father, some-thing which would have been very diffi-cult earlier because they had no experience of a loving father here on earth. Now they can look to Henry and Eva who show them God's love; please pray for them too, because theirs is a very demanding job with con-stant pressures.

Eleanor Easton

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Date Flower Deliveries

Crèche Rota Traidcraft Rota

Vestibule Rota

8 Apr J Clarke S Stenhouse

Chapman McCreadie

R Raeburn H Reid

Team 6 Jean Scott

15 Apr P Barlow S Robertson

Goodlet Deuchar

No stall Team 1 Anne Ritchie (Com)

22 Apr S Anderson M Adams

Cockburn McKinnon

B Watson M Conway

Team 7 Jim More

29 Apr M Conway M Macpherson

Richell Wallis

M Ure R Fraser

Team 8 Ann Begg

6 May A Galloway J Townson

Berry Reid

A Begg J MacLean

Team 9 H Arnold

Please note copy date (the last date for submissions) for May Life is Sunday 22nd April if using church pigeon hole or Wednesday 25th if emailing. Email to rona.dawson@go.uk.com or ph 944 4198.

C H U R C H R E G I S T E R NEW MEMBERS Joined by Certificate Mr & Mrs John Russell, 14 Edward Street, Clydebank, G81 1EY 70 Mrs Jean Brown, Buchanan House, 5 Grampian Way, Bearsden 67 BAPTISMS ‘In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit’, Matt 28.8 Andrew Thomas James, 42 Antonine Road, Bearsden CHANGE OF ADDRESS Mr & Mrs L Maclean, 49 Campsie Drive, now 9 Flat 25, Elm Court, 97 Main Street, Milngavie 40 DEATHS Jesus said: ‘I am the Resurrection and the Life’ 18.2.12 Mrs Elizabeth Fleming, Edinburgh 12.3.12 Mrs Agnes Clarke, 12 Craigdhu Ave., Milngavie 30